The Kansas City Chiefs are preparing for the Houston Texans’ unorthodox approach at quarterback. Last week, they debuted a two-headed monster at the quarterback position, featuring both Davis Mills and Jeff Driskel. Mills filled the traditional pocket-passer type of role, while Driskel was deployed mostly as a zone-read runner.
It’s a unique challenge for Kansas City, one that defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo says they haven’t exactly faced before.
“I’m not sure we’ve gone in knowing it was going to be a rotation,” Spagnuolo said. “You get in certain games and a quarterback gets hurt and you have to be ready for the backup, but listen, we’ve got to prepare for both of them. And, you know we have a No. 6 jersey (Jeff Driskel) out there in practice and a No. 10 jersey (Davis Mills).”
The Chiefs are using two different quarterbacks on the scout team during practice. Shane Buechele is working as the Davis Mills-type quarterback, making passes from within the pocket, with the occasional scramble. Rookie QB Chris Oladokun is more of a dual-threat quarterback akin to Jeff Driskel, recording 73 attempts for 166 yards and two rushing touchdowns in 2021 at South Dakota State.
“Chris (Oladokun) is great. Yeah, Shane’s (Buechele) great,” Spagnuolo said. “It’s a good point because when we play these zone-read quarterbacks – and those two guys, they know what they’re doing in that. We put the card up and they read it, but they’ll look at it and they know exactly what to do because they’ve done it most of their careers before they got into the NFL. That’s real helpful. I value that. Both of those guys to be able to do that.”
There is a bit of role reversal at times with Buechele and Oladokun as the Chiefs seem to expect some curveballs from Houston in Week 15. Being cognizant of which player is in the game and what exactly they’re capable of and likely to do on a given down and distance will be key.
“The players have to be aware of who is taking the snap because it looks like the football is different,” Spagnuolo said. “Now that could change, they could expand the package with (Jeff Driskel) and do some different things with (Davis Mills). But it’s two quarterbacks that – I think, one of them is a really good athlete. And let’s not be fooled, he can still throw it. He didn’t throw it a lot last week, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to line up and throw the ball this week.”
